New Analog Instant Camera Mixes Old and New with Excellent Results

Polaroid has historically been one of the most popular consumer electronics companies in the world, best known for its line of instant film and cameras. Many people might be surprised to learn that Polaroid is still producing instant cameras. They could be justified in their surprise given that it seems like an analog product in a digital age. Some of the unawareness may result from the fact that Polaroid declared bankruptcy not once but twice in attempting to keep its product line relevant in the face of rapidly improving photography and mobile tech. Polaroid, having rebranded once as Impossible Project and now once again as Polaroid Originals, has now gained back some of the market by rereleasing newer, improved versions of their cameras. They have also convinced people that, even in an age in which any device you carry on your person can take and store a large number of photos at any time, there is a benefit to having a physical photo to claim and own. It has done so with the new OneStep 2, an instant camera that improves on original models with some modern touches. Read more »

It’s difficult for any small business to become profitable without taking credit cards as a form of payment.  So many people pay exclusively with their debit and credit cards that incorporating some sort of credit payment system is pretty much a requirement, even for one-person ventures.  Unfortunately, integrating credit card payments into a business can incur both extra costs and complications.  Flint is a cool product that takes the recent advances in mobile technology and uses them to make adding a credit card payment system to a small business model much easier.  Flint turns smartphones into credit card scanners with no extra attachments.  Rather than forcing salespeople to carry around a separate device for credit and debit payments, Flint simply uses a cell phone’s camera to scan cards visually.  Users simply act as if they’re taking a picture of the front of a card.  The app then scans for the credit card number.   All users have to do after that is input the verification code from the back of the card to complete the transaction.  This system could save many one and two employee businesses much of the hassle that comes with accepting credit cards.  Any users whose cameras are broken will need iPhone repair or Android repair services to use the Flint application. Read more »